(i) Affective anti-communism refers to visceral, emo­tional hostility towards communism. It captures sym­bolic rejection – encompassing distrust, disdain and hatred – that is often rooted in historical memory, cultural stigma or identity. (ii) Instrumental anti-communism refers to a pragmatic rejection of communism as a viable political or eco­nomic model. In this sense, individuals may not feel particularly hostile emotionally, but nonetheless see communist ideas as dangerous or counterproductive in today’s context. In the comparative research underlying this brief, both di­mensions were measured through nationally representa­tive surveys in Chile (2021), Peru (2024), France (2024) and Italy (2022). Affective anti-communism was operational ­ised using emotional scales(for example, admiration vs disdain), while instrumental anti-communism was gauged via agreement with the statement»communist ideas have something to contribute to the politics of my country«. These measures enable a more precise understanding of how anti-communism operates, not as a historical relic, but as an enduring political attitude shaping electoral behaviour. Who are the anti-communists? Ideological and psychological drivers Using regression analyses across four national surveys, several patterns emerged regarding the ideological and psychological foundations of anti-communist attitudes. These findings are represented visually in figures that present the regression coefficients for both dimensions of anti-communism, affective and instrumental, across Italy, France, Chile and Peru. The values on the horizontal axis range from −4 to+4 and represent the strength and direc ­tion of association between variables. Positive values in­dicate a stronger relationship with anti-communist atti­tudes, while negative values reflect the opposite. Affective anti-communism is associated most strongly in Chile, Peru and France with ideological right-wing self-identification . In Italy, however, this emotional re­jection appears among left leaners , suggesting that the symbolic meaning of communism varies by context. It correlates positively with conservatism in France and Chile, and with liberalism in Italy and Peru. It is some­times linked to »securitarian« attitudes (a worldview emphasising law and order, together with punishment), notably in France and Peru, but not in Italy. By contrast, instrumental anti-communism is more straightforward. It correlates consistently in all four Anticommunism(affective) Ideology Figure 1 Liberalism Securitarianism –4 –2 0 2 4 Anticommunism(instrumental) Figure 2 Ideology Liberalism Securitarianism –4 –2 0 2 4 countries with right-wing, conservative and securitari­an orientations . 1 It emerges as a particularly clear marker of far-right constituencies, more so than the af­fective dimension. In other words, affective anti-communism – an emotional rejection of communism rooted in cultural memory, symbol­ic stigma or identity – tends to be broader, more ambiguous and potentially accessible to centrist or even left-leaning voters, depending on the national context. This may be be­cause emotional aversion to»communism« can persist as a cultural reflex, even among those who support progressive 1  In Chile, the questionnaire did not include questions on securitarianism. The scarecrow of communism 2